Contingencies (Premature Villain Demise)
Included here are some suggested contingency plans in case the players kill off your major villain to early in the adventure, leaving you with months of story to tell and no villain to drive the plot. Premature Villain Demise Joker Takes Over (Contingency) Most villains have a subordinate who is dangerous and wild and likes to hurt things just 'cause and makes things break 'cause its fun, and burn things to watch the fire. The name comes from the Injustice League, which is normally headed by Lex Luthor with Joker as a second. Characters like the Joker are useful to villains, as long as they are under control. They are also useful to Game Masters. If the players manage to kill the main villain early in the campaign, the GM can let the Joker character take over. This character should be smart enough to use all the powerful awful toys the villain was going to use, but will likely not be interested in the careful plans of the main villain, and will likely use them to break things rather than to win. This is a good lesson in consequences that the players will be less likely to see as a spanking, so long as the Joker's tendencies are lampshaded well in advance. Dead Man's Switch (Contingency) This is both a preventative measure and a contingency. A Dead Man's Switch is a mechanism that causees the villain's final masterstroke to activate in the event of his death. It can be as simple as orders to take certain measures in the event of his death, or as complicated as a computer program hooked up to a heart monitor. The important thing about this contingency is to show how many back up plans this villain has, without outright admitting to a dead man's switch ahead of time. The players need to believe that the dead man's switch is something the villain would have thought of, but if the players actually know about it, they stand a chance of countering the effects. The dead man's switch needs to be obvious in retrospect, but not before hand. So have the villain's organization have lots of back up plans, even some ridiculous ones, and some that don't work- make them expect back up plans. And then when the final plan activates on his death, the player's reaction should be "Of course, he would do that..." and not "Oh Yeah, like that's believable..." No Magus to Kill Lavos (contingency) This contingency is a 180 degree turn in the story and will require some work on the Game Master's part. The players catch the villain early and kill him, bam dead. As Game Master, you now rework the story so that the villain was actually acting to prevent the event of which the players thought that he was the cause. The name comes from Chrono Trigger, where the Magus is believed to have summoned Lavos to destroy the world. When the players confront him and defeat him, they discover that Magus was only summoning Lavos to kill it before it reached full power. defeating Magus brought Lavos to the world with nobody in a position to stop it. Thus the players were responsible for destroying the world and had t fix things. This is the sort of trick worked with the No Magus to Kill Lavos contingency. Either rework the plot so that the villain was a lesser evil hold back a worse monster, an undercover hero working from within to stop the same apocalypse, or some other complication whereby the heroes have caused the plot to move forward. This contingency requires quick mental footwork, or it will look shoddy. If you see signs that the players are moving too fast despite your best efforts, you may want to drop ambigiuous hints that will look in hindsight like you planned this in advance, you may want to drop these anyway to be safe. If you are caught off guard, look at the situation and pick the option that seems the most believable and then give the players a false victory, and THEN begin dropping hints that it isn't over. Body Double (Contingency) This contingency is the idea that the villain, or critical character uses a body double for public appearances. Players are unlikely to believe in the idea of a look-alike, so the Game Master should present the villain as secretive and faceless, and then have some conflicting descriptions of the villain prior to the reveal in order to make the contingency plausible if it becomes necessary. Without clues to look back and see, this contingency looks foolish. Also, a Game Master cannot use it more than once every couple of YEARS without looking like a hack, so keep that in mind. But used right, it works very well, and changes the game significantly. Once the players know that the villain uses body doubles, everyone is suspect, and everything is suspicious. For the rest of that campaign the Game Master can use the Body Double trick, the players will even come to expect it and likely begin grilling the body doubles for information, which means (generally) keeping them alive.